Chapter 48: Time has no blade, yet leaves its marks
Unexpected things were always happening in this world, arriving when people were wholly unprepared. Su Can, who had meant to enjoy a brief, detached moment of peace on the school rooftop, could never have imagined that he would become personally involved in a student's attempt to jump off a building. Now he even had a critical role to play. As far as the school's old men were concerned, the responsibility of saving this girl from a fatal misstep rested on his shoulders. Su Can had already cursed and trampled them a hundred times in his mind.
He picked up the book and looked at the Senior Year Two English textbook, with London's Big Ben on its cover. Flipping through it, he found notes everywhere: word pronunciations and grammar points to aid memorization. It was a perfectly ordinary English textbook, much like the graffiti-covered books belonging to the other students at No. 27 Middle School. The girl's handwriting was quite nice, with a modest, delicate grace. Turning to the chapter "Art and nature," Su Can felt a little dazed, as though he could see his life in another lifetime through this book.
"Many, many years ago"-at least, that was how it felt to Su Can-he had sat in classrooms on mornings when light streamed through gaps to one side. Or, on a school campus steaming with summer heat, beneath lush green leaves, he had played ball with all his strength, drenched in sweat, occasionally sitting down to gaze from afar at the figure he admired. On overcast days, girls would read Bo Yang's essays, Li Ao's prose, and Xi Murong's poetry, while boys kept Jin Yong's novels in their desks, along with the sunless darkness and glorious revenge of The Count